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The following is an imperfect summary of my philosophical 
views contained in several pamphlets published at various times 
within the last twelve years. 

1. The laws of nature, which are the proper objects of inves¬ 
tigation in the physical sciences, are the ordinances or decrees 
of the Author of Nature, that emanate from His will. 

2. All the power in nature is in connection with the laws 
of nature, and in no instance is it in connection with any form 
of matter whatever. Man can arrange the conditions necessary 
to bring into operation a law of nature, and can then control the 
power associated with this law, as long as it is in operation; but 
can transfer this power to no form of matter. When the law 
ceases to operate, the power ceases. 

3. The laws of nature are divisible into two grand classes, as 
they are applicable to, or as they are intended to operate on the 
two grand divisions of the created world—mind and matter. 

4. The laws of nature that are designed to operate on matter 
may be designated as the natural laws, and are divisible into 
three classes, that is; into physical, chemical, and vital laws. A 
principal object attained by the laws of physics is agglomeration, 
by which the integrity of the bodies of space or globes, and the 
proper relative position of the minor bodies or parts of such 
globes, are preserved. A main object attained by chemical laws 
is chemical combination, by which the union of the molecules of 
bodies takes place ; and the great object attained by vital laws 
is assimilation, by which foreign or external matter is converted 
into the tissues and nerve fluid of the living body. 

5. The laws of nature that are designed to operate on mind 
are the instincts. These may be properly divided into several 

•classes; but I will not stop here to enumerate and designate 
them. 

6. There is a marked distinction between the natural laws 
and the instincts in regard to the power accompanying them. 
When the conditions necessary to the operation of the natural laws 
are provided, the laws take effect with a power that is absolute; 






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but this is not the case with the instincts. When the conditions 
favorable to the operation of the instincts are provided, these 
conditions serve only to suggest to the mind obedience to the 
law ; they are merely suggestive impressions. The mind is left 
free to carry out the law or not; but there is this further pro¬ 
vision—that a due observance of the law is attended with the 
temporal happiness or well-being of the individual; while its non- 
observance is followed with suffering, to a greater or less degree. 

7. Every living being consists in a psyche, soul, or mind, in 
which alone is its personal identity. The difference among such 
beings is to be found in their mental endowments and in the in¬ 
stincts that are made to operate on them. 

8. Every living being is possessed of a nervous system or its 
analogue, which, in the class of plants called exogens, is the pith 
and medullary processes; and in the class called endogeus is 
seen in the ganglia or centres to be met with at the leaf-buds, 
and which correspond to the ganglia of the inferior orders of 
animals. 

9. The mind is endowed with the ability to determine the 
nerve fluid to any part of the material body with which it is in 
connection. In voluntary motions, this determination is made 
to the voluntary muscles, in accordance with the designs of the 
will, simply under the guidance of the instincts. In involuntary 
motions, some impression on the material body is necessary to 
or must precede the determinations to the involuntary muscles; 
thus, the impression of atmospheric air on the lining membrane 
of the nostrils is essential to the act of inspiration ; the impres¬ 
sion of vitalized blood on the several points in the tubes in which 
it circulates is necessary to its proper circulation, and so on; 
but the mind in all cases determines its nerve fluid und 
guidance or direction of its instincts. 

10. When a living being determines its nerve fluid to a mus¬ 
cle or to muscular fibres, this determination, or the presence of 
the nerve fluid, is, by virtue of a vital law, attended with an 
active elongation of the fibres; and when the nerve fluid is de¬ 
termined to a nerve centre, and is thus withdrawn from the 
muscular fibres, these, by virtue of another vital law, become 
contracted. The active elongation of muscular fibres or muscu¬ 
lar action, and muscular contraction, are vital states of a muscle 
to which there is nothing analogous either in physics or in 
chemistry. Hence, the very great difficulty in most minds in, 
realizing or in forming any just conception of the true character 
of these phenomena. 

11. The nerve fluid is produced by assimilation; that already 
in the system being combined, by virtue of a vital law, with the 
foreign or external matter introduced into the system, the mat¬ 
ter is converted in part into nerve fluid. 



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12. This fluid is principally derived from the secretions, where 
it is for the most part elaborated, and is taken into the nervous 
circulation by means of certain afferent nerves. As the secre¬ 
tions are constantly being mixed, in the living body, with the 
blood, and with the other contents of the tubes and hollow or¬ 
gans, the nerve fluid is derived from all these sources. 

13. The combinations that occur in the living body, by virtue 
of vital laws, are always dual; the elements of such combinations 
being the nerve fluid, and the matter, whether vitalized or not, 
with which this fluid combines; thus, by the combination of the 
nerve fluid contained in or mingled with the gastric secretion, 
with the contents of the stomach, chyme is the result; by its 
combination with the chyme in the intestines, chyle is the pro¬ 
duct ; with the chyle, blood; with the blood, fibrine; with the 
fibrine or the plastic portion of blood, tissue; and with another 
portion of the blood, the secretions. 

14. Under the direction of the instincts, and with the aid of 
the natural vital laws, living beings construct their own ma¬ 
terial bodies in precisely the same sense as a carpenter or 
builder constructs a house, as a honey-bee builds its comb, or as 
a bird its nest. The builder, the bee, and the bird bring together 
and arrange the materials of their structures, and they do this 
under the guidance of their instincts ; and then these materials 
are retained in their position, and are made to cohere by the 
operation of the natural laws of physics. 

15. In the living body a certain quantity of nerve fluid is al¬ 
ways retained in the nerves and nerve-centres which is essential to 
their proper function; and this retention is effected by means of 
the control that the mind exerts over these organs. When this 
control is lost, as it is at death, the fluid is free to pass from the 
centres, &c., to the muscles, or wherever the nerves may be 
most permeable. This important fact should not be lost sight 
of in investigating the law that governs the phenomena of cadav¬ 
eric rigidity or rigor mortis. This flow of the nerve fluid to the 
muscles may give occasion to their peculiar state or condition, 
which is certainly not analogous, nor even similar to that of 
contraction of the muscles in the living body. 

But, it will be said, the philosophy presented in the above propo¬ 
sitions is new to physiology, and, as such, it will meet with strenuous 
opposition. True, it is new to physiology, and I am the first 
probably to attempt its introduction into the physical sciences ; 
but the philosophy, in itself, is “ as old as the hills.” It is the 
Jewish philosophy, as it is expressed in the Bible:—and has been 
handed down to us from the first creation of the world. 


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“ Let there be light” was a law of nature, according to the 
Bible; and I have attempted to represent all the laws of nature 
as being of the same character with this—as being the ordinan¬ 
ces of God, and as deriving power immediately from God. 

If the above propositions are true, then a knowledge of them 
must inevitably lead to a radical change—a complete revolution 
in the present opinions of scientists in regard to the philosophy 
of all of the physical sciences; and more especially in regard to 
the philosophy of physiology. These sciences will then be 
wrested from the dominion of senseless Epicureanism and Material¬ 
ism, and will be transferred to that of Rational Philosophy. 

LOUIS MACKALL, M. D. 
Georgetown Heights, D. C., 

January , 1860. 






